The New International Encyclopædia/Columbus (Mississippi)

COLUMBUS. A city and the county-seat of Lowndes County, Miss., 125 miles west of Birmingham, Ala.; on the Tombigbee River, which is navigable six months of the year, and on the Mobile and Ohio and the Southern railroads (Map: Mississippi, J 3). It is the centre of a coal and iron region, and has cotton and oil mills, foundries and machine-shops, stave-works, and lumber-mills. The city has a public library, and is the seat of the State Industrial Institute and College for young women, Franklin Academy, for white, and Union Academy, for negro children. Columbus was settled in 1830, incorporated in 1832, and is governed at present under a charter of 1884, which provides for a mayor, elected every two years, and a council, elected on a general ticket. The water-works are owned and operated by the city. Population, in 1890, 4559; in 1900, 6484.